Why is it illegal for me to torture and behead a dog

Originally posted by bismarck
but not go on a rampage and kill a hundred million ants?

The folks in this society care about dogs and don't care about ants. It's not a philosophical conundrum. The difference between legal and illegal is
what the majority within a given society have collectively agreed on that difference to be. Some societies allow for the killing of women in specific
circumstances (honor killings), but that doesn't make it acceptable in other societies. Ants - being as small and as numerous as they are - will
never be valued across a broad enough swath of any given human society to ever force their wholesale butchery to become a criminal offense. The same
can be said about beetles, flies, mosquitoes, rats, crickets, grasshoppers, blades of grass, and plenty more living things that could use much better
representation within local, state and federal legislative bodies.

Well I don'T know, some seem to suggest that they don't. So do insect feel pain or not? I guess a nervous system is required to feel pain but I know
nothing of insect anatomy.

edit on 16-3-2013 by bismarck because: (no reason given)

They have a very well developed nervous system. The argument is that they don't have emotional response, so they have nothing to feel pain with. Ha!
And that some of them will continue to mate even as their organs are crushed. Hell, I would continue to mate too. Killing ants for fun is weird if you
are an adult, and I've seen people do it. Insects, I call on you to rise up! Hello? Are any of you listening? /insects continue to eat and
mate/ Hello? /sound of crickets chirping/

But insects don't feel pain. They aren't made physically to feel pain. Some of them don't even have brains.

If you don't have the physiology that enables you to feel pain, you won't feel pain. Anybody who has studied insects knows that, even if a bug is
half crushed, will still go on and eat food like nothing is wrong. Now, they probably have a survival instinct, as all living things do. But pain is a
different subject entirely.

The Jain's have an odd habit. They have someone sweep the walk ahead of them so the little guys are swept away and they won't walk on them. But they
still have people do that, which I've always thought was kind of mean because sweeping up a pile of ants has to cause hundreds of broken legs and
antenni and other insect atrocities.

Originally posted by bismarck
but not go on a rampage and kill a hundred million ants? Not that I care much about ants, and I would never hurt a dog, but why is one state of life
more precious than an other? Of course we are going to fall in the companion vs pest form of life but my question to you is : do all form of life
equals another? Is my life as a reasoning self conscious human being more important than the life of an ant? I believe so, but that is from my
perspective, If I was an ant I sure would not give a damn about any human being.

Because Ants bite us for no good reason and its about impossible to live with them let alone not cause a mass murder of them just by walking. Some
creatures are put here just to keep a healthy balance on earth for us Humans to live. Dogs are given to us by God to keep watch over us and make us
happy when we are not.

House Kats are just plain Evil. They are easily possessed by the evil spirits for now.

So if they all have brains, and all have nervous systems, maybe they are the kind of animal that won't react to pain in order to not show weakness or
they will be attacked by their companions. So they keep eating and mating. But haven't you ever seen an insect in what appears for all the world to
be in pain?: Worms wriggling in "agony" or an approximation of agony (good acting on their part), or bees in total distress when they are dying from
lack of food? There are hundreds of examples. I come down squarely on the "insects feel pain" side. If you were wrong about all of them having
brains, then maybe....

Originally posted by pheonix358
Because the society you live in is not enlightened.

Buddhist Monks as an example will not kill any life form. They have the view that all forms of life are equally important.

Society makes the laws via a perceived consensus of society as a whole.

P

Indeed. It really is perception. As a Wiccan, I'm generally referred to as Pagan as an umbrella term. While in Job Corps early in life, I got to know
Pagans of other belief systems. Some that people here probably wouldn't believe exist, actually. Anyway. At least two of those people would get mad
and I mean REALLY, sincerely pissed off if you pulled grass or snapped branches or anything that harmed life of any kind. Ghia and the Living Earth
wasn't theory or Faith...it was simply fact to them

My dog is aware of me and reacts and lives in accordance with the constraints and opportunities in my home. My dog is intelligent, but in an animal
way. People who think animals are somehow brainy and have consciousness like us humans are living on another planet.

Insects are not aware of me, nor do they sit by my fire and fart. Ants are not dogs. That said, I would not purposefully kill ants, or any insect
for that matter. Cruelty is cruelty regardless of the animal and whether they “feel” pain.

Well, from a biological position, ants are insects and don't have the physiology that allows them to feel pain. Dogs do. But in my opinion, killing
life is killing life period, and not something we should take lightly.

Not saying this is correct, it's just what I have observed. When I sit outside and an ant gets near my shoe I stomp the ground next to it and the ant
runs away to safety (okay, some of them don't stupid buggers). But, those that do run away, why would they do that if they didn't feel fear?
And, if they feel fear, why not pain?

Killing a dog is not illegal. If you hit a dog with a car you are not going to jail. The torture and beheading it is the action of some mental
problems that make make you a risk to society. If you torture and behead a pig the red flag goes up and they might take you away. If you kill a
endangered animal that is illegal.

As said a few times it depends where you are.
I'm in the U.K. and used to keep reptiles,they fed on mice,
however i wasn't allowed to feed them live mice,even though
my water dragon was a very efficient killer of mice.

it fell into a vertabrate v's non vertabrate thing in this instance
was fine to feed crickets live but not mice.

Your question reminds me of the goat killing in devils advocate,
if you can find a legal presidence for your act,you can pretty much
do what you want

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.